


The Butterfly Effect

by That_One_Curly_Haired_Fangirl



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon Divergence, First Blade, Gen, Non-Graphic Violence, Season 9, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-24
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-14 14:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2194599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_One_Curly_Haired_Fangirl/pseuds/That_One_Curly_Haired_Fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting inspiration from Abbadon of all people, Team Free Will tries a different way to prevent the apocalypse and all the subsequent disasters. They're going to stop it before it starts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for 9.21 spoilers, but not canon compliant after that.

The idea of time travel had all started when Abbadon pulled Crowley's son into the present. Sam had brought up the butterfly effect, how if you throw off even one little thing all of time can change. A butterfly flaps its wings, and somewhere it causes a hurricane. 

But maybe they could use this to their advantage. Because if at just the right time if they squashed just the right demonic "butterfly," they might just stop the entire apocalypse. At least for somebody. Cas tried explaining it, the complicated way angels traveled sometimes through time and other times the angels traveled into similar but slightly different alternate universes. He tried to explain how they all connected and broke off of one great timeline at different points, like millions of tangent lines from one great curving line weaving through time. 

Dean tried to pay attention, he really did, but ever since he got the Mark and came into more frequent contact with the First Blade it became harder and harder to concentrate and think. But he still couldn't resist picking it up now and then, going after whatever demon or monster dared to cross their path. Afterwards his memories would be hazy and it would take him several washings to get all the blood out of his skin and hair and clothes.

That was part of the reason they had to go back. Everything had gotten so screwed up for all of them. The world had nearly ended multiple times and each time they felt a little more at fault, even if they were the ones to save it again and again. 

But now they were going to stop it all before any of it started. They could prevent it all not by picking up the dominoes after they fell but instead by instead by going back and making one move to make sure the chains of events were never set up in the first place. 

They had the time and the place: 1972, Ilchester, Maryland. They'd done their research and that seemed like the best place to go back to. They could stop Yellow Eyes before he made any deals. No deals meant no demon blood kids, no demon blood kid death match, no dead Sam, no Dean selling his soul, no Dean going to Hell, no broken seals. They could stop Lucifer rising and everything afterwards. 

It took them a while to decide how they would kill Yellow Eyes, but eventually they decided Cas should just send Dean back with the Blade. The Colt had been lost in the aftermath of Jo and Ellen's deaths and the failure to kill the devil. Cas offered to smite him, but they decided against it because that much angelic activity on Earth when all the angels were supposed to be in Heaven could attract unwanted attention. Dean going back with the Blade was the simplest option. Besides, if it worked on a Knight of Hell it should work on whatever the hell Yellow Eyes was. 

So Cas would send Dean back to kill Yellow Eyes and everything would be prevented before anything could start. If things went well, the Dean and Sam Winchester of that universe and their family would live long, happy, normal lives. If things went wrong, and there were many ways they could, Dean would have to improvise since contacting Cas would be difficult. Or they could all get trapped in a paradoxical time loop. 

After saying last goodbyes, especially since if things went well they would never meet Castiel, Dean put the Blade in its sheath along his leg and prepared to go back after getting last goodbyes from Sam and Cas. 

Ready to go, he rested a hand on the handle of the blade and nodded at Cas. The last thing Dean saw was Cas reaching forward with two fingers as Sam appeared to be praying to an inattentive higher power.  
__________

Azazel exited the chapel feeling confident and purposeful. He'd actually managed to talk to his Father, a feat not accomplished since before the Cage was locked. And now he knew how to unlock it. All he had to do was find a Special Child...

He stopped suddenly when he rounded a corner and saw a man standing there with an angry yet determined look in his face. He had lingering traces of angel magic around him, but in his hand he held a familiar looking weapon Azazel hadn't seen since the last time Cain and his Knights visited Hell. 

"Well what do we have here?" Azazel looked at the man curiously. He could sense slight demonic energy coming from the man, concentrated on his forearm on the side that held the blade. "Do you even know what to do with that?"

The man smirked. "Yeah. Save the world."

Before Azazel could respond the man lunged forward with the blade and decapitated him, killing the demon.  



	2. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, in Lawrence...

About a week later, Mary Campbell read the story of a gruesome massacre in a convent in Maryland. Based on the odd rotten egg smell reported by the investigators and the brutality of the murders it seemed like demon activity. But she really didn't want to go out on another hunt. Besides, the demon who did it was probably long gone now. 

Across the table her father Samuel looked at her over his newspaper. "See any hunts?"

After a moment of hesitation Mary shook her head. "Nothing." She set the paper down and got up from the table. "I'm going out with John again tonight. Don't wait up."

Samuel put down his paper and looked at her. "That Winchester kid you've been seeing? Why are you interested in him but none of the Hunters we know?"

Mary started putting on her jacket. "He's a good guy, Dad. I like him. Plus, it's not like he's defenseless. He's a Marine."

Samuel snorted. "Yeah, that'll scare off monsters. We're a hunting legacy Mary, you can't just ignore that."

She sighed and went out the door with a "goodbye, Dad," knowing that hunting was exactly what she didn't want, and that with John she might just be able to live a normal life after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if you're wondering, Dean just stays in the past and keeps hunting, also looking out for John, Mary, and him and Sam when they're born. But he doesn't become a demon because it's my fic and I don't want him to be a demon in this 'verse.
> 
> Mary does eventually tell the others about Hunting, but they don't actively search out hunts, only protect themselves and maybe kill something if it's dangerous, obvious, and close. Dean gets a good job, Sam meets Jess at Stanford and they marry after he finishes law school, and the Winchesters just generally live happy lives while never finding out about the Dean from the future/alternate timeline that's been protecting them.

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic started from a conversation with my friend. (By the way, if you haven't checked out BlueWonder on here, you should. She's awesome and her writing is amazing).


End file.
